Cicero to Atticus, written from Astura on the eighth day before the Ides of May 709 AUC — 8 May 45 BC (the manuscript dateline: Scr.\ Asturae viii Id.\ Mai.\ a.\ 709 (45)). A short and almost self-effacing note. A courier has come back without a letter; Cicero, working out a charitable explanation, assumes Atticus has nothing further to say beyond what he wrote the day before, and excuses him from the duty of writing unless he is genuinely at leisure — tibi remitto, “I release you,” is the formal language of a creditor letting an obligation lapse.

The second section is a quiet retrospect on the old Roman correspondence rhythm: in better days there was always something to write about — Silius, Drusus, alia quaedam, the running catalogue of estate sales and political news. Now, with Tullia gone and Cicero in retreat at Astura, the visit from Otho is the only news; even that has been deferred. The line tamen adlevor cum loquor tecum absens, multo etiam magis cum tuas litteras lego (“I am lifted up a little when I talk to you in your absence, and much more so when I am reading your letters”) is the one note of warmth in the cluster’s flattest letter — Atticus’ presence in the form of a letter remains the only thing that moves the needle.